A group of people from Mississippi Market Co-op in St. Paul, MN decided to take the Eat Local America Challenge and this is what happened.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

I'll have the "tuna" melt

These are the kind of meals that are meant to be eaten outside in the shade on a beautiful sunny day. I just don't think they'd be the same indoors.

First up is a Chickpea Melt. You can make this exactly as you would a tuna melt, only soak, cook, chill, and mash some chickpeas to use instead of tuna. The chickpeas are locally grown, you see, and tuna is not. So even if you're not usually a veg-type person, this is a great substitute. This chickpea salad has chopped pickles (sweet & spicy freezer pickles I made with last year's harvest), grated baby onions, and fresh dill. Non-local ingredients include lemon juice, kelp powder (for iodine and that "fishy" taste), and Veganaise. If you're down with eggs, though, you should make Nano's mayo.

I used 3rd Street Bakery bread, Living Waters hydroponic tomatoes, and non-local Vegan Gourmet cheese in the assembly of these open-faced sandwiches. The best part is that I could broil these in my toaster oven, so the house stayed nice and cool!

The house did not stay nice and cool when I made these, but it was SO worth it.These are Sunflower Sage rolls, recipe taken and modified from the Moosewood New Classics recipe for Three Seed Whole Wheat Rolls. I chopped 7 or 8 sage leaves from the herb garden into these babies and the flavor really came through. The sunflower seeds give them a great crunch. But really nothing beats the chewy whole wheat insides.

I paired my lunch roll (as opposed to my after-lunch roll and before dinner roll...) with a homegrown salad. I just got my first cucumber and little broccoli head from the garden, so I paired them with my lettuce that is quickly growing bitter, more hydroponic tomatoes, and leftover Chickpea Salad. And I topped it with ranch dressing, of course.